Easy Trees

by 

Dan Crowley

Trees are something you never seem to have enough of.  You can make two hundred trees, add then to the layout, and they just seem to disappear.  So it is important to discover a way of making them quickly.  Follow along as I show you a method I use.   I'll start with the smaller background trees. This has been done before, but I have added something that really improves the results.  I call it "Bark in a Can" tm.  Actually you can pick this up at any home improvement center.  It is actually a texturing paint used to spray on wood to make it look like stone.

My trees are wooden skewers and tooth picks of different sizes.

I plant the picks in

Spray them with the "Bark in Can" and they end up looking like this

Next step is to paint on glue on the upper 3/4 of the trunk

You then drop the trunk in a zip lock bag full of medium  Woodland scenics foam of the appropriate color.  I use burnt grass for pine trees

The end results look like this

Plant along the back drop they give some forced perspective to a scene

For trees in the foreground I use the bigger skewers and a slightly different method.  They still get stuck in foam and painted with the "Bark in a Can"

I add branch detail by taking Woodland Scenics Foliage netting in the shade of conifer

This is cut up into little pieces and pulled apart to make it light and airy.

The trunk has the rubber cement painted on it, similar to the way it was applied on the small ones.  The netting is then just touched up to the trunk and placed to make it look like a tree.  The rubber cement has a great initial tack and holds the foliage in place

Planted on the layout

The above photo gives you an idea of what a scene can look like using this method of trees.  The large trees placed in the foreground and the smaller flat toothpick ones up along the back drop. That is about it.  You can really make a pile of trees in a hurry with this method.  The bark like texture really adds to the looks of the tree, to make it appear as if you have spent more time on it then you actually did.

I hope you find this technique useful